Some area municipalities are wrestling with steep hikes in insurance premiums this year.

Premiums went up 20 per cent in Windsor, 17 per cent for the County of Essex and 10 per cent in Lakeshore. Premiums declined in Amherstburg, Kingsville and Essex as those towns found new insurance providers.

The Association of Municipalities Ontario estimated premiums have climbed 22 per cent since 2007, although many area towns have seen premiums double over the last decade.

Windsor has “taken a fairly aggressive approach at managing (its) costs by maintaining a strong in-house claims management program and raising our deductibles to keep premium costs lower,” said city solicitor Shelby Askin Hager. “Overall, however, municipalities are seeing more and more large-dollar claims and the impact of that is being felt across the province.”

Lakeshore only renewed its insurance coverage for six months and has put out a request for proposals to see if there are more companies in the market that want its business.

“We are hoping to get competitive bids,” said CAO Kirk Foran.

In 2011 Essex’s premium increased 41 per cent. It may have jumped because the town added new community and recreation facilities as well as settling some claims.

Since then the town has introduced a variety of sidewalk and facility maintenance programs to reduce the number of slip and fall claims, said Donna Hunter, Essex’s director of corporate services. The town switched insurance providers last fall and will save $100,000. The change brought its premium down to about $640,000.

Kingsville also switched to a different insurance provider last year and saw a 33 per cent drop in its premium to $271,000 a year, down from $400,000. The town tackled managing risk better, said Sandra Ingratta, director of corporate services. She noted Kingsville doesn’t pay insurance on its treatment plant and has fewer recreation facilities than many other towns.

“Recreation facilities always have a higher liability,” she said.

Many town officials point to provincial regulations as the main hurdle to controlling insurance costs. Tecumseh Mayor Gary McNamara said his town has no pending insurance claims and yet its premium went up almost three per cent this year.

Under the Negligence Act many municipalities have had to pay large damage awards, even when their liability is limited to one per cent. This happens mostly when other defendants can’t pay awards levied against them. Recently in Oshawa a pair of sisters won millions after a car accident. The city was found liable for two-thirds of the cost and should have provided better signs and road markings, the courts ruled.

Lawsuit awards are getting bigger and municipalities are being held liable for a larger proportion of the judgment, which has resulted in higher premiums, said Larry Ryan, president of the Frank Cowan Company, a municipal insurer. He said judgments that used to be $5 million are now $20 million because the injured are living longer and care is more expensive.

The Oshawa car accident case was a first in which a municipality was found two-thirds liable for a vehicle crash on a rural road, Ryan said.

Tory MPP Randy Pettapiece introduced a motion late last month calling on the Liberals to adopt reforms to the Negligence Act. Members from the Liberals and NDP supported his motion.

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